To Plaxico Burress, it was "humbling" for the Pittsburgh Steelers to bring him back to his original NFL home two years ago — after the New York Jets had released him, after his two-year jail stint stemming from infamously shooting himself in a nightclub, and with his career seemingly over. Now, he hopes that after a shoulder injury wiped out his 2013 season, the Steelers are still as willing to give him one final chance.

"To be honest, it’s humbling, it really is, for Mike Tomlin to get on the phone and call me, and say, ‘We want to have you,’'' Burress recalled earlier this week, during a break in the NFL's offseason Consumer Products business boot camp in Baltimore.

"You just get off the couch immediately. It’s one of those things where, it’s humbling, and you want to prove them right. You want to give them more in return for their faith. And that’s the competitor in me, to say, ‘OK, if they’re gonna give me the opportunity to finish what I started, I’m gonna give them more than they even expected, more than they think they’re gonna get.'"

Burress rejoined the Steelers late in 2012, then tore his right rotator cuff in training camp last summer and missed the entire season. He said he is now "about four months out from being 100 percent."

He and the Jets had separated on bad terms after the 2011 season: despite proving to be a reliable red-zone threat with eight touchdowns in his return from 20 months in a New York state prison on a gun possession conviction, the Jets reportedly did not believe he would be a positive influence on the growth of then-quarterback Mark Sanchez.

Being embraced by the Steelers — where he had played his first five seasons — sent a more positive message, Burress said: "I've been blessed to be part of that organization, with (general manager) Kevin Colbert, the Rooneys, Mike Tomlin, to give me the opportunity to come back, mentally and physically, to finish what I started. Not many guys get that opportunity.''

Burress understands that with the injury and with his 37th birthday coming in August, the end might already be here — and he can live with that, which is one reason he attended the business boot camp, to prepare for his post-NFL life.

"I saw my dream take shape,'' he said. "Football has been good to me, it's been my life, and if I never play again, well, then I'll be just fine. But until then, I want to keep playing, I'll keep rehabbing, see what my body tells me, and I’ll make a decision based on that.''

If no other team shows interested in him, he made clear, it won't matter to him — as long as one still welcomes him back after all his travels and travails since he last played there 10 years ago.

"I wouldn’t even think twice. It wouldn’t matter how much I got paid,'' he said. "It would be just the fact that I can finish what I started, because I know a lot of guys I played with over the years, who can still play, who don’t get that opportunity. It's one of those things where if you get it, you just embrace it.''